“AHHHHH!”

The scream tore through the little foyer and everyone jumped up and the fighters had their weapons out and looking for the source. What they saw was this red skinned, black furred wolf like creature standing over Sam and licking her face. Izzy and Tamara were already on their way over to it when Terry shouted “Stop!”

Everyone turned and looked at him, the creature included, before it turned around and made its way back to him. He looked down at the thing and impressed that he was not happy with it. He had been watching out the windows all night and didn’t even realize that the thing had moved off as the sun came up and was over by the others. “Sorry about that, it’s new.”

“I DON’T CARE IF IT’S NEW, WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?” Sam screamed as she wiped the things saliva off her face.

“It’s a new pet I got.” He said as he knelt down and stroked its quills while. “I’m sorry he startled you, I didn’t realize that he had moved from where he was.”

“Ugh, what is it with you and new things. First the elves, then the troll and now this. Why can’t you just stick to people?” She stood up and glared at him before realizing what she had just said.

The other humans and Tabitha were all looking at her with disgust in their eyes and he was sure the elves would be too if they had understood her. “Look, you don’t like it, you don’t need to stay. You can go off on your own for all I care. I would take the elves and Tabitha any day of the week over someone like you.” He said, his voice raise as he stepped closer and closer to her before he was less than a foot from her face and he was almost shouting at her.

She had tears welling up in her eyes as she turned around and rushed into the bathroom, everyone still staring at him.

“I’ll go check on her.” Izzy said and moved to follow.

“No, let her mope on her own for a bit. Everyone wake up and get something to eat before we start out for the day.”

The mood was somber as they all pulled out food and started to eat. Terry made his way over to Tabitha and the elves and apologized to them for her behavior and told them it wouldn’t happen again. Katar had a stern look on his face as he was told what had happened and his eyes shifted to the women’s bathroom door. Tabitha on the other hand looked as though she had heard that her entire life.

Terry let everyone wake up and get moving for about twenty minutes before he walked over and entered the women’s bathroom. It looked like any other public restroom he had been in except there were more stalls. He walked along them pushing open the doors and checking each one. He got to the last one and the door was locked.

“Sam, it’s time to head out.”

“G..go away.” She said with a sniffle and he could tell she had been crying.

“Come on, if you’re staying with the group we’re leaving in a few minutes.”

“Just leave without me. I know you all hate me and think you’d be better off without me.” She sniffled again.

“Look just because we don’t get along doesn’t mean we won’t help protect you. But you have to know that your attitude hasn’t helped in anyone liking you.”

“I just hate how things are now. I can’t do anything and I feel so helpless while you and Izzy and Tamara go off and get stronger and stronger. I’m still only a level one.”

“That’s just how things work now. And you can raise your level by doing things related to your class, you know. Sewing and mending and stuff like that, I’m sure.”

*sniff* “You really think so?”

“Yeah, that’s usually how non-combat classes level up. Like Richard would level up by making things with metal or shaping things. And Jeremy would level up by chopping trees and making wooden things. And me and Izzy and Tamara level up by killing things with our classes.”

“I guess that makes sense.” *sniff*

“Now, if you’re feeling better, I think you should go out and apologize to the elves and Tabitha for what you said.”

The stall door opened and Sam stepped out. She had bloodshot eyes and a red nose. She sniffed again and nodded. “Okay, just please don’t leave me.”

“We won’t. It would take a lot more than that for us to leave you all alone out in this world.”

He put his hand on her shoulder and smiled before turning and heading back to the door and the rest of the group. She followed him and when they got into the foyer she sullenly walked over to Tabitha. “I…I’m sorry for what I said earlier. I didn’t mean it. It’s just this new world is getting to me and I’m scared.”

“I forgive you.” Tabitha said and smiled and then pulled Sam into a hug.

Terry thought he might have heard some ribs popping but she let go of her soon enough and Sam didn’t look hurt. She then went over to Katar and looked at Terry. He walked over to the pair and translated what Sam said to the elves. Katar still had a stern look on his face but he accepted her apology but said that it would take more than that for her to earn his trust back. Sam nodded at that, turned around and headed back to the people she usually walked with.

It wasn’t long after that the group headed back to the road and Izzy and her group, with Pope tagging along, went out to start their hunting. Terry led the group on the road with his red and black creature following him like a loyal puppy. He looked down at it and inspected it, its name was just a bunch of question marks and it was a level one.

Wondering about it he opened his status screen and looked. There were other tabs with summonlings and pets now. He was surprised that he had them since he didn’t notice them before but that’s what the end of the world will do for you. He selected the summonlings tab and it showed his skeletons and what they were armed with, their health and other information for them.

Clicking on the pets tab it showed the red and black creature with its name health, armor and other stats for it. Its race was unknown and its sex was male. He focused on the name and another screen popped up.

Would you like to rename ?????? Yes/No

He clicked yes and the question marks disappeared and figured he could input a new name. Now what to name it? He was terrible at coming up with names. He looked down at the thing and thought. And thought. He finally figured he would just go with something simple and put the name in.

You have renamed ?????? to Spike

He smiled at that and then bent down and pet Spike, its quills feeling funny as he did so. He wondered if Spike would be good in a fight and what kind of abilities he would have. As Terry led the group along the road Spike would wander around the group and sniff everyone a bit except he stayed away from Sam and the people she was around. He had learned from earlier to stay away from her.

The group kept at a steady pace all morning and by the time the sun was already on its way down to the horizon Izzy and the others made it back to the group. They were covered in blood and gore. They even had some entrails and other parts in their hair.

“Uh, looks like you got a little messy.”

“Ha, a little? There’s a thing out there that runs at you and explodes, covering you in gore and we ran into a whole horde of them.”

“Did you at least get some good experience from them?”

“No, they would explode before we could finish them off. Luckily they were the last group we found so we didn’t have to fight like this.”

As the two were talking Spike ran up to Susan and started licking the blood and gore off her. It didn’t take him long to clean most of the stuff off her and then he moved to Bradley and did the same. Going around to each of the others he cleaned them off, before moving back to Terry’s side and licking his chops.

“Wow, that actually wasn’t too bad.” Izzy said and looked over herself. “And he did a fairly good job.”

“Yeah, it really looks like it. Though he did miss a few spots.” Terry said as he reached out and pulled a piece of intestine out of Izzy’s hair before throwing it to Spike.

Pope looked the worse, he was totally white faced and looked like he was about to throw up. “You hanging in there Pope?”

He just nodded his head and covered his mouth.

“How did he do?” Terry asked Izzy.

“Fairly well actually. He was able to hide Tamara fairly well while I held a groups attention and she could sneak around them and attack from behind.”

“And the kids?”

“They’re really good at working together as a team. Susan would stay back and shoot her bow at them while Bradley would stick around her and protect her from anything that might slip through or come around behind us.”

“That’s great to hear. Maybe tomorrow you can take Katar and Gantar and me and Tabitha can take the kids.”

“I suppose though how would we communicate with them? You’re the only one who can speak their language.”

“Oh, right. I forgot about that.” He thought a moment and then turned to Katar. “Hey Katar, how many credits do you have?”

After hearing his name called Katar made his way to the front. “Almost a thousand, why?”

“One second.” Terry quickly opened his store and searched for the English language. He found it fairly quickly and there were a few different ones. One for American English, UK English, Australian English and Canadian English. They were all about a hundred credits. Thinking about it he searched for the highland sect of elves language. There was only one and it was nearly ten thousand credits. “If you open your store and search for the English language, you should be able to buy it. The American one.”

“There’s a store?” Katar and Izzy asked at the same time.

Looking between them, “Uh, yeah, didn’t you know that?”

The both shook their heads.

“Oh, well if you think Store there’s a basic store that will open up. You can get basic stuff, food, clothing, basic weapons and armor, stuff like that. Languages included.”

They both got a far-off look and then their eyes went wide.

“Wow, this is amazing. There’s even spells in there!”

“Yeah, where do you think I got my firebolt and lightning bolt spells from?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t really think about it.”

While Izzy was still looking around the store, Katar refocused his eyes. “I think this is the right language, correct?”

“Whoa, dat is amazing.” Tamara spoke up as he finished. “I can understand you now.”

“That is good to know. Gantar.” Katar turned and called his son to him. He bent down and told him about the store and the language that he should buy.

It didn’t take Gantar long before he was talking excitedly in American English. He then moved over to Bradley and Susan and started talking so fast they had to stop him and ask him to slow down. Once he did Susan and he got into a discussion about something that Terry didn’t catch, with Bradley just kind of nodding along.

“There that should help. You done in there Izzy?”

“Uh, oh, yeah. Man, now I want to try these spells out.”

“Just be careful, they may not be too strong to begin with.”

“I know, but come one. They’re spells!”

Terry chuckled at how excited she was. “Oh, trust me I know.” He turned to Katar, “ready to go hunting some?”

He nodded and they called Gantar and Tabitha over and they peeled off from the group and headed out into the wilds. The made their way out and as they did Terry told the others about the exploding enemies and to be careful.

It didn’t take them long to find their first group. It was a group of a dozen white bunnies that were about two feet tall, not including their ears and looked really big teeth and smaller fangs protruding from their upper lips. Just as Terry was about to lay out a plan of attack Spike bounded forward and crashed into the nearest bunny, tackling it to the ground and ripping its throat out. He devoured it in two bites and then turned to the next one.

It took the group by surprise when Spike ran off and they watched as he downed and ate one of them that it took them a moment to break out of the surprise and run forward. By the time they started forward Spike was already surrounded by the remaining bunnies. They were still about five yards away when Gantar rushed forward in the blink of an eye and was standing next to one of the bunnies and slashed down, cutting it deep.

As Gantar slashed at the one closest to him, Spike sprang forward and snatched one in between his teeth and bit down, snapping its neck, before devouring it. As the others got to the party Gantar finished off the one he wounded and turned to the next. Terry got to the bunnies and stabbed down at one but it jumped back and then sprang forward and kicked him in the chest, knocking him back a step. He kicked out with his back foot and sent the little thing flying towards Spike, who jumped up and snatched it out of the air before landing and eating it.

The group made short work of the bunnies and before Terry could go around and collect them for himself Spike had already eaten them.

“Spike” Terry admonished the animal, who at least tried to look guilty about the whole thing. Softening his tone, he spoke to him, “It’s alright if you eat them, just let us loot them before you do, okay.”

Spike perked up at that and wagged his tail.

“Though also, you can’t just rush into groups like that. We need to stop and come up with a plan of attack. You’re just lucky those things were fairly weak.”

His tail dipped and he lowered his head like he was saying sorry.

“It’s alright, you’re still learning, just try not to do that again, okay.”

After that the group moved on to find other things to kill. Spike did learn after that first group and he waited patiently for the others to form a plan. Terry really wanted to see what else he could do but all he ever did was bite things and eat them. Though after a few encounters he did seem to be bigger as he was now a couple inches above Terry’s knee and seemed to have more quills.

The group didn’t end up running into any of the exploding enemies but they did see some squirrels the size of saint Bernard’s and lizards as big as a motor cycle. The amazing thing was that Spike devoured all of them and still seemed to be hungry. Though he at least let the group loot the bodies before doing so. As the sun was just about to hit the horizon they decided to make their way back to the rest of the group.